Internet as preferred health information source: An information foraging perspective

This study provides a model for assessing the likelihood of preferring internet as a health information source from a theoretical lens of information foraging using the HINTS 2014 data. Essentially, this study tries to answer the key question - When do patients prefer to use internet for health information over other sources such as government agencies, physicians etc.? This study focuses on preference to internet for health information by patients suffering from cancer. This paper contributes to the growing literature on health information seeking by providing a theoretical model to identify the organic antecedents of preference to internet sources for health information by users. The findings of the study provide a deeper understanding of the relationships between information seeking preferences of cancer patients and trust in various sources of health information as well as perceived value and search costs associated with the information foraging behavior.